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Wetherell, (Sir) Charles

Speech at the bar of the
House of Lords against the
iniquitous Corporation bill
on Th\irsday, 30th, and Friday,
3l3t July, 1835 2d ed.

Ti

854789

SPEECH

OF

SIR CHARLES

WETHERELL,

AT THE BAR OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS,

AGAINST THE

COEPORATION BILL,

ON

THURSDAY, 30th, AND FRIDAY, 31st JULY 183j

s«:c©]Sfi> jEi>iTS©:¥.

LONDON :
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Of whom may be had,

Sir R. Peel's Speech at Merchant Tailors' Hall, delivered 11th
May, 1835. Tenth Edition.

T.TJi4T;?.^^T^F HEARD THE NEWS.> An Address to THE
FREEMEN of all the Corporations of Great Britain, iij)on the pro-
posed Destruction of their Rights b}' the WHIG MINISTRY.

An ADDRESS to the Members of the Church of Enr/land entitled
to vote for Members of Parliament.— By A CHURCHMAN.

a d 2? °^ *^^ ^^^^^ ^"" ^^'' ^^' ^^'' *^"""' ^^- P^^ bundi-ed;
REGISTRATION AND OBJECTION.
This day is Published, Second Edition, ia Quarto, price 6d. each •
vAS.^JcT^''^" ' ^'- ^^^- ''''• P^*" Hundred; a TABLE of COUNTY
\OTES and OBJECTIONS, for the use of Countv Associations
ana Committees at the ensuing period of Objection.— By Thomas
Martin, junior.

MUNICIPAL CORPORATION BILL.

ON THURSDAY, JULY 30, 1835.

Sir C. Wetherell and Mr. Knight appeared at the bar.

Sir C. Wetherell proceeded to address their lordsliips.
He commenced by stating- that he was placed in a perfectly
novel situation, and had to beg their lordships' best indul-
gence under the circumstances in which he found himself.

Sir L. Shadwell asked for whom the learned counsel ap-
peared.

Sir C. Wetherell said that he could not so easily explain.
Perhaps he might best do so by staling that be appeared
pro populo — for every corporate population in England and
Wales. His clients he was unable distinctly to enuraerats.
All those who had petitioned were his clients. Many others
were preparing their petitions, and he conscientiously be-
lieved that if a knowlede;e were diffused of the tyrannical
attack which was levelled against their rights and privileges
and property, they would be, one and all, as anxious to rush
forward to the rescue as those which had been fortunate
enough already to appear before their lordships. If they
had heard, or could have conceived or imagined, or dreamed
of the contents of this outrageous, unjust, and tyrannical
bill, they would, one and all, have presented themselves be-
fore their lordships as petitioners. When, therefore, he
was asked for whom he did appear, he feared that the re-
verse of that question might be put to him, and that he
mig'ht be asked for whom he did not appear. The bodies,
however, that he appeared for then, and that had petitioned,
he would name to their lordships from the catalogue he held
in his hand. Rochester confided in him — Marlborough de-
pended upon him— Leicester was his — Oxford regarded him
as a friend — Norwich affected him — Warwick went with
him — Worcester he took under his wing — with Coventry he
was hand and glove — the rose of Lancaster he wore — Here-
ford was of kin with him — that Truro trusted him — cum
multis alas. The number of corporate petitions already
presented was about 27. Having now stated and inti-
mated the parties for whom he appeared, he would beg to
say a word or two upon a person so humble as himself. A
petition had been presented from Bristol, of which corpora-
tion he was a member, and that petition it was his wish, his
anxiety, and his duty to support to the very best of his abi-

lity. Not with reference to the select body only, but with
reference to the valuable privileges of the common burgesses,
whom he felt himself bound in duty to take under his imme-
diate protection. They solicited that their case should be
taken out of the bill ; the corporation was irreproachable,
and it was universally acknowledged that Bristol was the
second or third city of Great Britain. Now, London was
left out, and he considered that Bristol had grounds equally
strong for claiming its exclusion from the operation of this
measure. In order that the case of Bristol might be sepa-
rately considered, and fairly and reasonably dealt with, he
had had instructions to support this petition, and was ready
so to do ; but after this he understood it was their lordships'
wish that the arguments against the principle and chief de-
tails of the bill should be consolidated, and that some two
counsel should be heard on the subject. Under these cir-
cumstances, alihough in the Bristol petition he felt he had
responsibility more than enough, and although it was greatly
against his wishes and feelings to undertake at 24 hours'
notice the defence of 183 different corporations, all the cases
varying, varying the one from the other, yet in obedience to
their lordships' order he would not shrink from the task im-
posed upon him, hazardous as he knew it to be, and great
as was the responsibility. Tlie very imperfect opportunity
which he had enjoyed of examining the various documents
and instruments which had poured in upon him, compelled
him to throw himself upon the candour and indulgence of
their lordships. Undeterred, however, by the difficulties
with which he was surrounded, he should, in pursuance of
the duties imposed on him, pursue the best course he could,
and proceed in the most direct road that he could take in
this unexampled case, so as to consume the smallest possible
portion of their lordships' time. He begged to observe,
that it would be a convenience if noble lords would take care
to have the bill itself before them, together with the protest
of Sir F. Palgrave and the posthum.ous protest of Mr. Hogg,
«o improperly kept back, and brought to daylight in conse-
quence of what had passed in their lordships' house. Both
these documents he could assure them were very important.
The bill, against which the petitioners contended, was a bill
which recommended itself, as was the case with most bills
in which something very violent was meditated, by a title

A. 2

the most modest, unassuming, bashful, and captivating.
But the maiden's blush soon vanished, and a very bold and
audacious character was assumed. One would be led from
the title to suppose, that the object of the measure was solely
and sincerely to preserve each and all of these institutions.
They would be led to suppose, under the title, that the bill was
what is commonly called a conscrvat'ue measure, and they would
conclude that while it proposed to regulate, it at the same time
fervently intende 1 to preserve the corporations. The bill was
entitled " An Act to provide for the Regulation of Municipal
Corporations iu England and Wales." But what w-as the real
meaning of this regulation? What was the operation of it?
To what did it amount ? It amounted to a confiscation of
all their charters, to the expulsion of every man who now
held a corporate oflSce, places, station, or rank ; the over-
throw utterly of the ancient municipal body, which was to
be superseded, and a new and different institution esta-
blished in its stead. The regulation was to abolish the au-
thority which the existing corporate bodies had derived from
the Crown, and which can constitutionally only be derived
from the Crown, and to substitute for the ancient deposi-
tories of power a new plebeian and democratic system of
government, which was not only not like the preceding, but
which would be absolutely untenable by any one of the
charters. With this mendacious title to the bill, then, the
framers of it proceeded to regulate the corporations. Now
he would read how this regulation is expressed ; it runs in
these words: — " That so much of all laus, statutes, and
-usages, and so much of all royal and other grants and letters
patent now in force relating to the several boroughs named
in the schedules (A, and (B) to this act annexed, or to the
inhabitants thereof, or to the several bodies or reputed bodies
corporate named in the said schedules, or any of them, as
are inconsistent with or contrary to the provisions of this act,
shall be and the same are hereby repealed and annulled."
This short enactment sweeps away every thing, except
what the subsequent pages of the bill leave untouched.
But when you have painfully travelled through sixty-four
pages of this legislative confiscation, you will find nothing
left except the name of the corporate body. The bill con-
descends to leave this, but nothing else. The name, form,
and subs ance of the municipal system and government are
gone. The no7ninis umbra is permitted to survive. The

parchment on which the ancient charter was written is left ;
but parchment only, after it has been gutted and disem-
bowelled of its content-; — dry unclothed bones represent the
former body of 1S5 corporations. There is still to be
what is termed the mayor and burg'esses of Oxford, the
bailiffs and burgesses of Ipswich ; but every existing mayor,
bailiff, and burgess, is to be expelled, and a new race, novi
homines, a strange herd of persons, are to be driven into
their places under the operation of the democratic principles
of the bill, which were actually founded on the doctrines of
annual Parliaments and universal suffrage. That feature in
the constitution of a corporate charter which gives to some
integral parts or portions of it a fixed and sedentary fran-
chise, is to be entirely supplanted by the principle of con-
stant commotion, change, and election.

Moreover, in addition to giving to the new body the-
powers, magisterial and others, held by the old, others were
to be conferred upon them. All the powers of locally keep-
ing the peace — all the executive and administrative powers
which had been given to the ancient authorities, upon cer-
tain conditions, were to be handed over to the new comers,
who were not qualified by any of the probationary or pre-
cautionary measures which were essential to the promotion
of their predecessors. Not only this, but all these persons
were to be very extensively increased ; and it will be pre-
sently shown that they were to have the -power of taxation,
or right to levy money for undetermined and general pur-
poses. The kingdom was literally to be vaccinated through-
out with a new principle of corporate democracy.

Without running through a canii/ena of the clauses of
the bill, he would attempt to deal with its leading principles.
First, he would ask who were to be the electors of these new
municipal bodies ? It appeared, from pages 4 and 5 of the
bill, that every man of any community who was rateable for
property of any amount (for it was not limited) might vote ;
every man occupying any house, warehouse, counting-house,
or shop, within any district, had a right to be put upon the
rate : and if put upon the rate for a period which was thre&
years before the election in the new community, he had a
right to vote for the new body, which was called a counciL
That was to say, that any man who for a certain period paid
upon a property, no matter how small a rate, of sixpence a-
year, would have a right to vote. Why this was even worse

6

than in the French Constitution of 1792, which one would
have imag'ined was in all consc-ience sufficiently liberal. It
was made by great philanthropists and philosophers — by
great march-of-intellect men, yet even they had not ventured
to go quite so far as the enlightened legislators who had
succeeded tiiem in the labours of reform and reconstruction.
The French philosophers and constitution-makers laid it
down as a rule, that no man should vote in their primary as-
semblies unless he paid in t;ixes to the state three days'
labour, which was equivalent to some 4s. or 5s. a-year.
Now here there was not only the guard of some pecuniary
qualification, but also that of an intermediate body. But
according- to the bill before them, the person who contributed
as a rate the smallest silver or copper coin for a definite
period might vote for the rulers under the new Jacobia
dynasty. So much for the electors.

Let them now cast their eyes upon those who were eligible
to fill offices in which there is much power for good and
evil, and so much responsibilily. In page 17 they might see
the character of the rulers of the new dynasty. There was
to be a mayor and council. But what qualification were they
to have ? None at all ; none was required from the electors,
and pari ratione, upon the principles of past sympathy and
liberality, none is required from the councillors who com-
pose the council. The only qualification necessary for the
officer was, that he should be a burgess, that he should be
entitled to vote. Therefore the qualification for the mayor
or councillor was no more than for the voter, and the per-
son invested under the bill with high authority and great
trust micht be no more than a rated pauper — an individual
who paid some trifle as a rate to maintain his vote, though
scarcely by any means able to maintain himself. Now, such
being the case, let their lordships look to the vast and mon-
strous powers which belonged to these new corporative offices.
The bill gave the officers thepower of watch and ward, wliich
amounted to a power of regulating the police. But, more-
over, they were to have a power mfinitely greater than any
which existed at present: they had the power of making by-
laws. It is declared in a distinct provision : " That it shall be
lawful for the council of any borough to make such by laws
as to them sliall seem meet for the good rule and govern-
ment of the borough, and for prevention and suppression of
all such nuisances as are not already punishable in a sum-

mary manner by virtue of any act in force throughout such
boroug-h, and to appoint by such by-laws such fines as they
shall deem necessary for the prevention and suppression of
such offences." Now these by-laws being sent up to one of
His Majesty's principal Secretaries of State, might acquire
the force of law. It was, in fact, a legislative power. They
might, for instance, in their district establish a curfew law,
provided it seemed meet for the good rule and government
of the boi;ough. They may make any reg'ulations, how-
ever wanton and vexatious. It is no answer to this to say
that a secretary of state is to approve of this on all constitu-
tional principles. This is equally objectionable; it is a per-
fect novelty ; Downing-street ought to have nothing to do
with this. But it will appear that this constant resort to
Downing-street runs through every part of the bill. It was
new to have the corporate authority and interference moved
about here and there as a secretary of state might fancy. It
was strange to have corporate bodies, that used to be recog-
nised as fixed, turned into tools to be played with by the
Government — to go on with the movement, or to stand still
with its opponents, just as the Administration then in power
might happen to fancy. The intervention of Government
in the local affairs of corporations he maintained was new
and unheard of in any era or time of the British constitution.
Great complaints, indeed, had been made, that at present
the magistrates always took a side iir politics on every ques-
tion ; but did not the Government itself always take a side
on every question ; and was this a reason for making cor-
porations mere playthings and tools in the hands of each
successive administration — to have their officers made or
unmade under the auspices of that new democratic system,
as might suit the whim, or the convenience, or the policy of
the Minister ? He begged to press these matters on their
lordships' atttention, and should be glad to know from those
who supported the bill what they could say in favour of these
large privileges. He now came to a power even still more
monstrous than that of legislation to which he had adverted.
He alluded to that which in the House of Commons was
called the power of the purse. It was said their lordships
had no right to interfere with a money bill. The Commons
accordingly ought to be much obliged to their lordships for
striking out certain clauses, with the substance and effect of
which the guardians of the public purse could not, he pre-

8

sumed, liave been acquainted. The substance was not stated
in the margin. Many hon. Members had probably only
read the catch words, and then the ayes had it whatever it
was. It was most desiral)le, however, that this should be
corrected there, and that tlierash and indiscriminate framers
of this bill should be saved from the consequences of their
own blind precipitancy. Let them see what the Chancellor
of the Exchequer could do under his new Exchequer — his
new Municipal Corporations Bill, They found, in pag-e 52,
that to the new council was to be transferred all the corpo-
rate property of the ancient corporations. This it must be
allowed was a pretty good temptation to a set of men who
mig-ht not have any property at all. If private individuals
were to appoint bankers, they would inquire at Lombard-
street ; they would look to their credit ; but the magnani-
mous framers of the bill in respect of corporate property,
■despised all such low considerations, all g-rovelling inquiries
as to money credit. In the spirit of liberalism they had left
out — they had spurned the vulgar terrene qualifications of
wealth ; their pure feelings of philanthropy and philosophy
were sublimated far beyond that. Nothing could be more
natural than that men who had been elected by persons hav-
ing nothing, and having nothing themselves, should, under
the wise and liberal principle? formed, be intrusted with pro-
pertv, the amount of which, lest he might, appear to exagge-
rate, he would iiot attempt to state. Their lordships, how-
ever, might easily ascertain to how many millions it went.
But all this property was to be transferred from the cau-
tiously-chosen and well-qualified body now e.Kisting to the
new body, whose only qualification was as electors or elected,
and who were not even tested as to being worth 100/. or
50/. It was to be given to them, according to the provisions
of the act, for paying off debts and paying salaries, and also
to be expended for the public benefit and the improvement
of the borough. Pretty large words these ! Moreover,
when the funds did not suffice for those purposes of paying
oflF debt, paying salaries, and expending moneys for the pub-
lic benefit and the improvement of the borough, there
was actually to be a power of taxation given to this body.
The House of Commons used to be very nice on this subject,
"very chary of its privileges. They were wont to keep i»
ioculo the pow-er of raising money. The doctrine as to the
raising of this tax was laid down in page 54 ; he should like

to know their lordships* opinion on the subject. It was de-
clared to this new corporate dynasty, if the existing funds
were not satix, they might afterwards take means to raise p/ws.
He admitted that in some boroughs there now existed a right
of taxation. In Bristol, which was a city and a county of a
city, neither a borough nor a county-rate had ever been
raised. A great majority of the boroughs and counties of
towns throughout England and Wales never had exercised
the right of raising such a rate. He should now call the at-
tention of their lordships to a power conferred by a clause
which they would find at page 57 of the bill, and which im-
parted to the new corporations the privilege of selling cor-
porate property. Hitherto corporate bodies had been re-
strained from eftecting such sales, but now the power of
Downing-street made its appearance, and with the permission
of the Treasury such sales could be eflfected. Here they had
the Executive Government again. The Government was
now to intromit in that with regard to which they never be-
fore had exercised any concern. Here was a change novel,,
unheard, and never before thought of. To clause 38 he should
now beg leave to call their attention, that which related to
the licensing of public-houses.

In the longest, and certainly one of the ablest, speeches he
had ever heard, that power of licensing public-houses was
discussed for full one hour by the time-piece of that other
place in which that speech was delivered, and the main
ground of the denunciations then poured out against the
state of the law as it existed at that period was the iniquity
which arose from the practice of public- houses being-
licensed by the borough magistrates ; but if that state of the
law drew forth such eloquent condemnation, how much
worse a condition of it would the contemplated changes in-
troduce ! for by the bill then in his hand the very lowest
orders of society were invested with the power of licensing
public-houses. What did their lordships think of giving to
the plebeian rank the privilege of licensing, for example, 150
public-houses in Oxford, and, perhaps, 300 or 400 in Bristol ?
Could they, for a moment, doubt that in a matter of that
sort there would be a traffic of bargain and sale, — that there
would be a direct traffic in the whole conduct of the munici-
pal government of corporations ? He should now come to
the appointment of magistrates. What sort of persons were
those who heretofore had filled the magisterial chairs ? They

10

were men who had risen throug'h various gradations of wealth,
and had at length attained to the full confidence of their
fellow-cidzens ; those were, by the wisdom of the Crown, ia
ancient times, deemed the fit depositories of magisterial
power. But what sort of men did the new system introduce ?
What was the tremendous attack which plebeian legislation
made upon the authority and prerogative of the Crown ? The
council of 96 were to furnish a list to the Crown, from which
His Majesty would be at liberty to choose as many as he saw
fitting to become borough magistrates. Heretofore the King
had been deemed tiie fountain of justice, but that distin-
guished prerogative no longer remained, but was transferred
from the monarch to the lowest inhabitants of the boroughs ;
a plan of corporation government as old as Alfred was now
to be exchanged for a new and democratic system, by which
the King would have no more to do than register an apparent
consent to the appointment of the nominees of universal
suflfrage, for of necessity the King could not do otherwise
than accept the names that were given to him, — he must do
it, whether he would or not ; thus a completely self-elected
corporation would prevail and be predominant. He knew
nothing more illustrative of the republican and radical tend-
ency of the measure, first, than this mode of election, —
secondly, than the total absence of all qualification of a pe-
cuniary nature ; the perfect and total deprivation of private
and individual wealth was precisely that which was deemed
the most fitting to place him in the situation of one compe-
tent to fill civic offices : such a man would then be in all
respects in the safest and happiest condition to which a cor-
porator could attain. He remembered a poem quoted by
Dr. Johnson in his Lives, in which the man without wealth
was described as the happiest of mortals, and the best pro-
tected from danger, —

"Felix cui nihil est;

Non timet insidias ; fares, incendia temnit :"
from him nothing could be stolen, he could be neither the
subject of robbery nor of arson. The possession of that
negative wealth, which consisted in having nothing at all,
formed the highest possible recommendation to corporate
offices under this new bill. To another and not less impor-
tant part of the bill he should now address himself, — namely,
the mode of appointing the trustees for charitable purposes.
Their lordships must be well aware, many of them much

-1

better acquainted than he could pretend to be, with the
amount placed at the disposal of corporations for charitable
purposes. He would not permit himself to name any amount
as at all approximating to the sum total, lest he might be
exposed to the imputation of exaggerating. That there was
now lying at the disposal of the corporations of England and
Wales a prodigious amount of real property and of money
in the funds, no man in his senses would attempt to deny.
Now, the whole of that by one of the clauses of the bill would
be taken out of the hands of the existing holders and trans-
ferred to the honest money -keeping conservative curators
created under the new measure, and declared by its enact-
ments to be the fit and proper depositories, trustees, and
transferees of all that prodigious amount of real and per-
sonal property, their best qualification for which was, that
they possessed, as he had said before, that sort of negative
wealth which consisted in having nothing.

Under the bill nine trustees were to be appointed for
charitable purposes, and with the sanction of the Treasury ;
they came to Downing-street again ; those nine trustees
might do as they thought proper with the whole of the pro-
perty ; they might dispose of and transfer it wheresoever
they thought right. Then there were certain things which
half the nine were to do. Now, he should be very happy to
see a set of gentlemen who constituted the half of nine
— would it be six, or three, or four and a half ? Then of
this number nine, three were to be a quorum. At page 39,
sect. 26, their lordships would see that these three would
have the disposal of those vast funds : such would be the
monstrous delegation of power imparted to them under that
bill They possessed the final power, with the sanction of
the Treasury, of making any order whatever. The corpora-
tion of Bristol possessed property applicable to charitable
purposes, amounting, he believed, to no less a sum than
13,000Z. a- year. According, then, to this novel piece of
legislation, that would be at the disposal of three individuals,
not one of whom need possess the least pecuniary qualifica-
tion. In the existing state of the law not a shilling of that
)3,000Z. a- year could be disposed of otherwise than under
the corporation seal. He need not inform their lordships
(many of whom were much better acquainted with such sub-
jects than he was) that the seal of that corporation could not
be used without the consent of twenty- one, being a moiety

12

of the council ; but the modern democratic and republican
measure would break down all these safeguards, and give
the full ascendancy to three persons Those were the powers
which that bill created, that was what it built upon the ruins
of the existing corporation system.

The next clause to which he should direct attention was
that which gave the Crown the power of granting charters
under the provisions of that bill to such new boroughs, con-
taining a specified amount of population, as the Secretary of
State might recommend. Here again they had the interfer-
ence of the executive power, and again the introduction and
working- of the proposed bill, which was to subvert and sup-
plant the system under which 183 boroughs had been go-
verned ; all was now to be abolished that had attracted the
attention or won the feelings of the lower orders of society,
or which had been an object of veneration to the humbler
classes of freemen ; all that had hitherto satisfied those classes
was now to be exploded. The ancient corporations of
England were no longer to exist. And he would ask, why
•no longer? Coidd they not be amended, could not faults
be corrected, could not deficiencies be supplied ? Was the
whole frame ot these corporations so very bad that nothing
less than total destruction would suffice ? Were they so
full of vice, so steeped in wickedness, so buried in sin, so
pervaded by corruption — was the circulation of their life
blood rendered so stagnant, were they so covered with le-
prosy and tilth, as that nothing could purify, that nothing could
heal ? That they were not even in a remote degree approach-
ing to that condition he took upon himself to say ; and yet
an assumption of the opposite formed one of the avowed
grounds of the measure, since the very foundation of the
bill was, that the existing corporations were in a state so
vicious that they could not be dealt with in the way of
amendment, but thut the whole system must be exploded, or
rather that it must be destroyed and buried as a carcass, the
exhalations of which would putrify the air, the continuation
of which on the surface of the earth would breed disease, the
touch of which would contaminate ; therefore the corpora-
tions of England and Wales were to be nailed up in their
coffins. But if they were so very bad, why have any corpo-
rations ? " Oh, but," say the promoters of the bill, " we
do not object to corporations in general, what wa dislike is
your corporations, and we are resolved upon setting up car-

13

porations of our own, and we are resolved to have our
corporations upon a democratic basis — a basis so republican
that it shall be nothing short of annual Parliaments and uni-
versal sufifrage, for a third of the council is to go out every
year."

The bill would go to destroy the power of the King so far
as corporations were concerned, and would give the country
not royal or aristocratic but n p iblican communities. The
title, he contended, kept bad faith with itself; but he would
pass over that, and call their lordships' attention to the
preamble of the bill, which constituted, as it did that of every
bill, its foundation. Did the House desire to know what
formed the foundation of the measure ? Abuse of power and
privilege formed one of the grounds. The preamble stated,
that " partly by defects in the charter by which the said
bodies corporate have been constituted, partly by neglect
and abuse of the privileges by such charters granted and con-
firmed to the inhabitants of the said cities, towns, and
boroughs, and partly by the change of circumstances since
the said charters were granted, the said bodies corporate, for
the most part, have not of long time been efficient instru-
ments of local goverciment." Those three propositions
were then brought into activity in dealing with the present
bill. He would maintain, without the slightest fear of any
thing like successful opposition, that if there were defects in
the corporate system, they might be remedied by the autho-
rity and prerogative of the Crown. That power was so large
that there was no fault which it could not reach. But before
alterations could be made, the Legislature ought to know
what were the circumstances of the place. That bill, how-
ever, did not accommodate itself to any variety of circum-
stances, but proceeded with a sweeping range to level that
which for centuries had been held sacred and venerable.
Instead of the power of the Crown being exercised as it might
have been, and the remedy rendered apposite to tlie place
for which it was intended, they had a bill suitable to no useful pur-
pose, and meeting no individual case, at least as it required to be
met. He had spoken of three propositions, and he should observe,
with respect to the first of them, that it turned upon a matter of
fact, and, as he contended, so did the other two ; for the question
whether the e.xisting corporations were or were not inefficient and
improper instruments of local government, was beyond all possi-
bility of question a matter of fact ; what those corporations had
done, or what they had left undone, was assuredly a matter of fact.
But then let the House only observe another instauceof theloose«

14

ness of expreFsion for which the preamble was remarkable. It
talked of the "change of circumstances : " centuries, it was true,
had j)assed away since those corporations wai-e constituted ; the
parties originally concerned had long since died. Really that sort
of Idose talk about "change of circumstances," he knew not how to
deal with : there was nothing tangible in it. "Change of circum-
stances" n)ight mean anything which imagination, fancy, genius,
or speculation, might suggest. He would make some attempt to
grapj)le with this charge were it not in its own nature so indefinite
and ethereal. The learned gentleman then proceeded to complain
of the hardships to which apprentices, otherwise entitled to their
freedom, would be exposed under the hill, and next went on to no-
tice the change which would be operated in the form of society in
corporate towns by the measure then bpfore Parliament. The al-
derman and recoideis and cori)orate ofhcers, the functionaries who
represented the authority of the Crown, and dispensed its benevo-
lences, would be cast on the pnvc: Those who had been accus-
tomed to the curule chair, and familiar with a high estate, would
be seen walking the streets, and pointed at as men who once held
authority but w(>re its depositories no longer — who once were dig-
nified by the service of the State, but had of late been superseded
iy one Isaac Tom kins or one Peter Jenkins. He himself, in his
judicial capacity, would now have nothing more to do : he was
fundus officii, and instead of being from eight o'clock in the morn-
ing till twelve at night engaged in presiding at arduous trials, he
might be taking an airing on the downs. Their lordships, too,
might look to their graduated ranks in the peerage : they might
look to the security of those honours which they derived from a
remote ancestry, and which they might wish to transmit, at least
not impaired, to their posterity : let tliem beware of the ascen-
dancy of SafiVon Hill and St. Giles's, and of those losses and that
degradation which must be far less endurable than even pecuniary
wrong or confiscation. Did their lordships know, could they ima-
gine, how many of the existing members constituting the select
body of those corporations would be affected by this bill ?

There were some whose views were too exalted to condescend
to such a vulgar inquiry ; their principles were too much sub-
limized, their genius mounted too high, their taste was too ex-
quisite, they could not deal with corporeal ideas, they looked to
man, not as he was, but as he was not. If they did look to man
as he was, they would know what he (Sir C. Wetherell) would
now state to their lordships, that under the operation of this bill
in the to be exploded corporations there were 4000 of those men,
40 at Oxford, 40 at Bristol, 40 at Worcester, &c., to be turned
loose and driven from their places of rank, dignity, and station, by
the unheard-of, persecuting, execrable whii)ping and scourging
and tyranny of this bill; victims of the taunt and ridicule and
scorn of the new democratically-elected council and constituent
body, who were to supplant them in official station and dignity.

Among those persons who were thus to be turned out to walk
abroad, as if just dismissed from the treadmill, there was a body of
148 recorders, and he could not but express the surprise he felt
that whenever the gentlemen who drew up the report of this mu-

15

nicipal corporation commission had the opportunit)% special care
•was taken to add, by way of qualification, that the recorder was a
peer ; in fact, the measure was one of the closest approxiniations
to the subversion of the privileges, powers, and existence of that
House as a constituent body in the State wiiich the mind of man.
could possibly conceive. There were 20 or 30 instances in which
the recorder was a peer, and in all such cases the fact was sure to
be mentioned ; and what, in the name of all the trash and ribaldry
of the report did that mean ? Could it be meant that a peer was
incompetent to perform the duties of recorder? Did not the silly
individual who drew up the report know that every peer was a
magistrate of the county in which he resided, accustomed to sit at
quarter sessions, and, independently of his judicial capacity in that
House, was among the most active and zealous persons in the con-
stant administration of the peace throughout the whole of the
kingdom ? So much for the recorder being a peer. There was
one case, he believed that of Leamington, where tiie recorder was
an admiral.

Now one had undoubtedly heard that a warrior was at liberty
in time of peace to " beat his sword into a jjloughshare," and, ac-
cording to the Roman maxim, to become an agriculturist, an im-
prover of the soil, — a citizen, — mollifying and soothing and spread-
ing the blessings of cultivated life over those among whom it was
his lot to move. No matter for that ; perhaps they would by-and-
by hear that the mere circumstance of a peer or other personr
having been at the battle of Waterloo would incapacitate them for
everything. Really there was a ribaldry, a low-bredsomething,
which he could not describe, prevailing throughout the report,
which held it fairly up to unmeasured ridicule and contempt. It
was fit for a Roderick Random or a Tom Jones, to form part of a
country-town circulating library, — a sort of Margate, or Ramsgate,
or Southend, or the Nore, or Shecrness, or other sea-bathing com-
pilation of books. It was fit to be put into the steam-boat, — it was
fit for the use of any of the genteel, or not very genteel, people,
who might be disposed to give up an hour of their time, whether
at sea-bathing places or returning from such quarters. Such a sort
of thing was that municipal rejjort, upon the verity and truth of
which their loi'dships were called upon to legislate as to matters of
fact, and to become what they could not become, the hideous in-
struments of carrying a great object, founded on a report which
was the scorn of every man who looked into it, and the laughing-
stock of all who were disposed to treat it with levity or pleasantry.

He was not at present disposed to trouble their lordships with
details, although that might become necessary in the sequel of the
case. In point of number, however, how many would be handed
over to the discipline of the new system ? If he were not mis-
informed, the number of persons who were to be governed accord-
ing to this new-made kingdom — this new empire of reason and
philosophy — of democracy and republicanism — the population, part
of his Majesty's subjects, who were to be taken out of the existing
empire constituted b)^ the King, imder his undoubted prerogative,
and charters of centuries' duration up to the present moment, and
to be handed over to the government of new democratic rulers.

16

onstituted at least a number of 2,200,000 persons ; and if he were
to suppose that under the last clause of the bill, which called it
an enabling act — an act to enable his Majesty to constitute mu-
nicipalities on the new principle, but which in fact was, as he
should presently show, a disabling act to prevent his Majesty from
constituting municipalities by royal charter otherwise than con-
formably to the new system, — if he were to suppose that the en-
lightened inhabitants of the neighbourhood of Saffron-hill, the
dense population of the Tower Hamlets, and the not unpeopled
purlieus of Marylebone, were to be included, he was disposed to
think not fewer than 3,000,000 would he the number of his Ma-
jesty's subjects to be withdrawn from the now existing, regular^
constitutional, legitimate Government of this realm, under those
principles by which the monarchy was administered, and handed
over to the tender mercies, if not to the tyrannical discipline of
the to-be-newly-constituted Radical, Jacobin, republican institu-
tions. That was not all, — the bill, with its not ingenious sophisti-
cations, for such they were not to any man who could apply bis
mind to know how a clause might appear to have one aspect, while
in reality it had another, with a visage of hypocrisy looking one
vray, and a visage of another kind looking elsewhere, — this bill,
with its not ingenious sophistications, while it professed to ca-
pacitate the King to grant charters, actually incapacitated him,
and he (Sir C. Wetherell) was prepared to contend that no mo-
narch, no authority, no individual whatever, ought to be invested
with powers to constitute bodies as they would be under this
act of Parliament, with rights, titles, and authority, derived and
flowing from the sovereignty of the people, — in other words, un-
der the pretence and profession that the King should do so and so,
it was provided that the King should never again in this country
constitute a corporation, except upon the tyrannical and democra-
tical principle on which the corporations of this bill were to be
constituted.

He declared to their lordships, as a lawyer, after laborious in-
vestigation of this bill, that its intention and operation were to
pillage and rob from the Crown the power of constituting corpora-
tions as the King thought fit to constitute them, and to direct,
compel, and order his Majesty to constitute them alone according
to the execrable disposition and democratical dictation and inef-
fable absurdity of this bill. That was a nut for any man to crack
who could. He now begged leave to call their lordships' attention
to another part — he meant to the effect of the bill on freemen, on
whose numbers and property it would inflict such grievous injury
and loss. The perpetuity of freedom being kept up in corporations,
there were various rights and interests that descended from father
to son, pretty much like an estate tail, some of ancient, others of
more modern gift, belonging entirely to the freemen, and of which
they had the direct and immediate enjoyment. Thus, in the case
of Alnwick, with 369 freemen, there was property amounting
to 5000/.; in Berwick-upon-Tweed, to 120,000/.; in Beverley, with
850 freemen, to the amount of 80,000L; which those guardians of
the public purse, who would not allow a single comma to be altered
in a money bill, were with a most precipitous velocity, and the ut-

17

most heedlessness of all possible consequences, prepared at once to
confiscate and destroy.

He contended that in the contest and struggle of who should carry
on the administration and government of tiie country, there was a
class of persons whose rights ought to be attended to equally and
indifterently by both parties— that in the scramble they became a
sacrifice to the dominant faction, in order to carry a measure
which, under the sham pretext of corporate reform, was to become
an engine of political power. He hoped their lordships would bear
this in mind when they came to deal with the garrulous trash and
i-ioaldry, the gipsy jargon of the report, contrasted with the evi-
dence he should tender in favour of that to-be-disinherited, de-
prived, vexed, and tyrannized-over body, the commonalty of the
existing corporations. He would now simply state, that according
to the estimate which had been made out of the value of the pro-
perty to be taken away from those people throughout England,
and within the provisions of the bill, its annual value was 23,473/.,
and if sold would, at twenty years' purchase, constitute a sum of
upwards of half a million stei'ling, in the contest of political ani-
mosity, to be sacrificed at the altar of the dominant party under the
false and sham pretence of reform in their municipal institutions.

In the vast variety of matter with which he had been obliged to
deal, he had endeavoured, as far as he could, to trace out some
clear line of consideration, and so to classify the points as to ren-
der them in some degree intelligible to their lordships, and he was
now about to examine by what evidence the allegations as to
abuse had been substantiated. With that view he should have to
solicit their attention to the protest of Sir Francis Palgrave. A
commission was issued, to scamper with horse, ready equipped,
over all the country, and to report as expeditiously as possible, so
that Parliament might be enabled to legislate on the subject early
in the ensuing session ; and hence, perhaps, the obviously crude
and indigested state of the opinions which the report contained.
The commissioners were to gallop all over the reakn, to hunt up all
the charters, to examine all the archives of all the ancient bodies
corporate in the land, and to make their report with a precipita-
tion which might almost excuse their blunders ; why .' not to re-
form the municipal constitutions so as best to secure the advantage
of those who lived under them, and who had no concern as re-
spected Ministers, Parliament, or the superior authorities of the
State, utrum Pompeius aut Ccesar rempublicam habeat, provided only
their institutions were formed on a good basis, but to forward the
party purposes of those to whom this measure was supposed to
be of considerable value.

Be that, however, as it might, it was expected that the harvest
which those sicklemen were to reap, the sheaves of corruption
which they were to bind and wareliouse, and bring into their
garners, accumulate in their ricks, and constitute their agricul-
tural produce, would have been very great ; but although they had
done their duty, the crop had not been very abundant. It was
expected that in all the great towns corruption, malversation,
cheating of all public charities and trusts, embezzlements of cor-
poration property, and every species of departure from economy

18

and rectitude of administration, would have been made up of that
aurca messis, the golden harvest which those sicklemen were ex-
pected to reap. It turned out, however, that wherever the mal-
versation was expected, every species of good conduct had been
realized ; and out of the 185 corporations, which, according to
the second toi)ic of this bill, it was proposed to disfranchise
and annul on the ground of neglect and abuse, there were no
fewer than ninety-six which, notwithstanding the fooleries and
partisan prattling and erroneously and defectively applied investi-
gation, and prejudicial influences which characterized the report,
stood unreproached and irreproachable by those very commis-
sioners themselves.

He would not go so far as to accuse their lordships of the bad
taste of having read the whole of the report ; he believed that not
five among them had done so : but he hoped their gallantry and
honour as gentlemen would not allow them to be made the dupes
of its ribaldry. He called on them to look well to its contents. It
was said of the great Roman lawyers that they had secretaries to
read to them, and he was afraid their lordships would be under
the necessity of having recourse to some such vicarious vision ;
but at all events he hoped they would not come to a conclusion,
without well investigating all the circumstances affecting each
individual corporation.

FRIDAY, July 31.

Sir C. Wetherell appeared at the bar, and continued his ad-
dress to their lordships. He observed, that his anxious endeavour
would be (oppressed and overburdened as he was with particular
cases and views) to confine himself to general results, and to offer
such remarks as appeared to be applicable to the principle of the
bill — that being the purpose, as he imderstood, for which he was
especially called to appear before their lordships. He should now
proceed to show, that under this sham bill for regulating corpora-
tions, very great injury would be done to a numerous class of per-
sons, who at present enjoyed important rights and privileges —
the right, for instance, to participate in the benefits derivable
from common lands. He had stated yesterday, when he referred
to a document which he meant to have printed, that the annual
value of those lands was, according to that statement, 500,000^.
But he believed that the amount was much underrated, and that
the annual value was not less than 750,000/. The rights of all
those persons who were interested in common lands were com-
pletely and most unjustly thrown overboard in this political re-
form. They were cast aside to lighten the passage of the political
vessel — they were flung away as useless lumber in order that the
political ship might sail more steadily into the revolutionary har-
bour. The rights of that class of people were totally neglected,
although some of those rights were actually of a freehold nature,
particularly right of common, which gave to those who owned it
as extensive a privilege of depastin-ing cattle as any noble lord in
that house possessed to turn cattle out on any common for pas-
turage in any county of England.

Now, as to the existing right of those persons, there was a clause

19

in the hill to which he had not before adverted, which enabled the
new corporation, or munici])ality, or commune, for he knew not
•what to call it, to purchase that right. This clause, which would
be found at jjage 9, was peculiarly oi)pressive. Under it this new
body were enabled to purchase all the common rights of all the
freemen in those existing communities; and it provided, further,
that if the parties could not agree on the price, a jury was to be
empanelled to set a value on that which was disputed In Oxford,
Lincoln, and many other places, freemen, as matters now stood,
who werecan-ying on business, had a right to turn out their cattle
on certain common lands, and it was quite clear to him that the
value to those persons of such a privilege was three times greater
than any amount of remuneration that would be offered for giving
it up. This clause affected to give a benefit, whereas, in point of
fact, it took one away. By this clause a power was given to the
town council which was very nearly coupled with a principle of
compulsion. It gave authority to those new powers to purchase,
and to compel the sale, of lands and commons belonging to the old
corporations, which were worth annually nearly 750,000/. They
could, under this clause, compel men to sell those rights. But the
clause declared, thac if the value were disputed, a jury should de-
cide upon the matter. That looked very fair and plausible, but if
they examined more closely iuto the subject, they would find that
there was nothing solid in it. So long as a perpetual race of free-
men was kept up, the right of each, with respect to common lands,
descended to his son. It was like a tenantiy in common, at com-
mon law ; or, like an estate in tail male, it went to his eldest son.
Such was the case at Grantham, and in many other places. If a
man were compelled to sell his interest in this right, he would not
probably receive one-half, in many instances not one-third, of its
actual value. This, therefore, he must denominate a peculiarly ty-
rannical act. He was now speaking on behalf of the poor freemen
"whom this bill went to disinherit : and he would much rather exert
his vigilance in support of the poor than of the select body, who
were to be made the victims of this struggle for political power.

It had been made the subject of especial complaint by those who
approved of this bill, that the present corporate bodies were self-
elected,— that aldermen elected aldermen, — bailiffs elected bailiffs,
— common-councilmen elected common-councilmen. He would
not enter into a technical definition of what self-election actually
was, but he would treat the question practically. This system of
self-election was one of the odious things most reprobated in the
report. But was there no self-election under this new bill .' The
body who had the power to elect magistrates might name them
from among themselves; they need not, and probably would not
go to strangers. Here was self-election. Then the nine chaiitable
trustees were taken from a list of individuals who held certain cor-
porate situations, and was drawn up by themselves. Here agala
was self-election. The report objected to the principle of self-
election as it now existed; but in the bill the same principle was
adopted with respect to the election of magistrates and of the nine
charitable trustees. Those who favoured the system said, "We
hate the self-electing principle as it is adopted by you ; but under

90

tliU new fonii of law wo iiiit'(>ly (^imiiot. Iiivn nnd liciiclll. oiimolvat
• (to iimt'li." 'riiiiy. il iip|>''in'<"li wi'in no liinmr cudliNl.H, Whiit
tlioy IikiUimI n|Min iin (^xoUNin iin nicid hi<II iiiv«i in nUiri'H will
itotiihiK in llu'in lint iJni milk iiriinniiin liindnrNx, or linil. iloinw hit'
mmilfi' ol' w'liirli KiiiiMHriin liml NpoKm.

Ili< nliunlil now ii|)|ily liiniHi<ll Id Unit. |iiti'l, ol' lln< liill wliicli ni-
hlliCil III (Inn iliiltli' IiiihIh, 'I'Imti' vvcit I.ii Iii< nine IrnNlrcN, wlnl
\vi<ri< III li(' ii|i|i(>inl<Ml liy tliK t.itvvn I'linncil. In |iiiinL ol liiw, limy
wonlil liii tiiiHtrcN, I'miiliHN, iinil inhninlNtiiilrdrH ol nil <'liiiriliililn
|il'n|ii'i'ly Uicii'M wonlil lie tlH< Ininih In prnU<cl, to illviilc, lo ininil-
nlftlcr Ihn wlnil(< ol'llnil clitNM ol' Ii'iimIn ktnivvn liy lint niiinn ol' clni-
rll.ul)l« trinilK, ol' wliicli, iil. |n'i<M<<nl., inniii('i|iiil liiiilicH, in Ihcii' cor*
|)oi'itti< ra|iui'ily, wrir lln< liiiNlri'N. Ili< conlil not hImIi> llir inrfriii-

rriili< iinniiiil tiinunnr of iIiomii rlnnlliilili' liimtH. It did not, lui
iidiovi'd, ii|ipi'iii' in lli<< ii'|Hiit Ih< did not iniiiiii tlit< tiiividlin^j; rn-
|toi't, lint Lord llron)rlnnn'M jiidilii' ri'port npon (ilnirii icn. Il«*
conid, lnivv(<\'in, pnt tln<ir lordHlii|m In poMNnHNion ol' ci'i'tiiln I'lnHiii
wlili'li wonid (<niililii t>i(<ni to liirni Kiunc |ndi/;nn'nt on tln< Nuli|(<ot|
iind wonId oinililK llnnn to docldr on thn propriety ol iipplyin^ llio
principli' olllioliill In tliiiNi< idmritiililr tinNlN. 'I'lio iininiiil iiininml
of InnilM I'onnciird villi cliiii llidili' iiiHtitiilioiis lii<liin|j;inK to llriiilol
wii« III tln< piTNiMil inotni'iil I',!, 01111/ , ol wliiili lliiM'oi'|Mii'iitiiin wnrn
tlin triiNlcrn. And how wrrii tlioHc rninlM |i!'oti<i'lod :' Notliln|f
could III' doii(< with rcriMrin-K to IhiMii hy ii ronniil int, Kivini nnilor
tlio i'orpoi'ut(< Mi'id, Mild in pt<««tnc(< iit' iit ioiiNt ono-lnill ol tho cinni-
cil, I'oniiintinK ol iorly ikmhoiih. InnttMid iil' that provision, tlioy
WCI'O III havo nndrr llir ni'w hill ninii triiNtrrN, tlirrc orwlnnn wore
cmpowiMi'd to niiilir any Older Ihry pic, iNod with ri'sprct In cllll-
rltahli" IntnlN. 'I'lio cliinNe w hh \'riy Ioohi'Iv drawn, and hi'i'miimI to
bi< piiked np iVoni hoiiii' Inrnpiko act, or Home poor le|,rid I'lnnpila*
lion. Surely It wan not rixht that proporty to tlie amonnt of
12,000/. or l.'t.OOO/. u-yoar (tho cHlent nl thn lli-lNtol ilnuitahlo
tnintN) Hhoiild he managed In IIiIh nninner. Why Hhonid Niirli
un altiMiition ho made i* What necoNnlty oxlNtod liiriti' lioril
llriniivhain'ri lepoi t eonipliineiited the eor|ioiiitloii id IIi'InIoI I'm tho
Wi'i'in.iev with which llicy kept, llieli accomilN; and tliey woi'O
nl«o I'omplimi'iiled liy the pii'Hent I'limmiNHionei h. 'I'lielr I'hai'ltu-
liio ti'iiHtN wiTo pai'lly in IIiInIoI, partly In (llintcoKtorHhiro, rind
|iartly in iSomerHotnliiro. Tho aceomitM worn not lol't, an in othor
t'liDoti, to thri'o or tour piMHiinn who took the lalmininK out; no,
thoy wore o.xaininahio, and oxamined, hy tho whole eonin'd, loii-
•lntln|i; id till ly perioiiN, hclore whom they VM'ie rennliiily laid.

The mime I mt' 111 he mi ill ol ( )\tinil. When llieaecoiiiilH were tliero
lunlited, a iiilile wiim i eud ('ontainiii|{ each and every ol the chiirilioN,
tho triiMleoHhlp ol which the corporation Indd. Yet tlnmo I'nrpora-
tioiiK, which had hithoito oxorciNcd their lunetimiN no henellcially,
WOi'o, nnilor the provlMimiN orUiiN hill, to ho provintod I'loni o\er-
ciitlnK thiMii in t'litnro. Ilo would not outer into an oxaminatloti
UN to what, Nirieliy NponUiiiK, cniiHtil nled a eharitulilo triiMl. Tliu

IircNenlation lo liviiiHii, perliapM, wiii not. Iliil he mIio'iIiI like in
Liiow wIk), nnilor tloN hill, wiih to pre'ient lo li\'iiif>,s liolonKii'K ''*>
cnrporuto hodieit i' II the nine tnitilecM (Ihreo ol wliiiin iiii^ht iiid.)
yiiviv lo iiiive thul |iuwvr, llien tliuy wuiiKl bou^inu tliu patiuiii of

21

ele^-en advowsons in the city of Bristol, an akeraticn which their
founders never could have contemi»lated. Il was very much to be
regretted that that part of the Government called the Cabinet had
not had the assistance of a lord chancellor when this measure
was framed; for if that had been the case, they never would have
seen such a tiiinijas this launched in the shape of what was techni-
cally called a bill. It was full of omissions, and passed over many
cases for which special provision should have been made. He
should now give some proofs of this. Amongst other charities
that belonged to the corporation of Bristol was a grant of 10,000/.,
which had been given by a gentleman of the name of Weir. Now,
as the corporation was abou^ to be dissolved, he might reclaim the
gift. He might say, " I am not dead, and I recall that which I
meant for the corporation, and which I never contemplated being
placed under the care of nine trustees, of w horn I know nothing."
Had a lawyer been consulted, he would have asked, " How can we
frame a bill transferring property from a body to whom it had
solemnly been given, and conferring it on another who had never
been thought of by the devisor .-" It was certainly the most poeti-
cal or fanciful change that ever was contemplated.

Again, Mr. Parsons, a gentleman w ho resided in Oxford, had
granted 7000/., in trust, to the mayor and corporation, for certain
charitable purposes. Under this bill the trust would be transferred
to these nine new trustees, of whom Mr. Parsons, who had peti-
tioned the House on the subject, knew nothing. If this bill were
passed, there would be no aldermen to act as trustees, as was con-
templated by the donor. That class of persons would be consigned
to the old almanack of history — they would be as obsolete as the
ancient aldermanni, or the numbers of the wittenagemote. Under
these circumstances Mr. Parsons had an undoubted right to caU
back his gift, since he had placed it at the disposal of trustees who
had ceased to exist. Mr. Parsons might say, " I devoted this sum
to certain purposes; but I did not meaji to place it under the con-
trol of persons who were elected on the principle of universal suf-
frage and annual Parliaments. I w ill not allow the trusteeship of
nine men, three of whom go out annually." Those donations were
made in every case (and it was generally expressed in the deed)
with the full hope and expectation, on the part of the donors, that
the persons whom they pointed out as curators and trustees of the
property devised by tham for charitable purposes should be suc-
ceeded by others of the same rank and class. If any one of those
persons could start into existence, and see the alteration that was
about to he made with reference to trusteeship, he would exclaim
•' Non hofc iafundera vent." He would now go over a catalogue of
church preferments which would by this measure be taken out of the
hands of the present trustees, who were a priori members of the
Church of England. He first begged to observe, that substantially
and practically the corporation ought to have been Protestants
of the Church of England. Ceitainly by connivance, or rather suf-
ferance. Dissenters were admitted into corporations by means of
the annual Indemnity Act, hut the intention undoubtedly was that
the trustees were to be members of the Church of England. But
now for the catalogue. These aew bodies, which migh'; be of any

22

religion or no religion at all, were to have eleven ecclesiastical liv-
ings at Bristol, and four i)reacherships at Oxford.

Let him next take a journey in the Leeds mail. In Leeds, the
mayor and three senior aldermen had the presentation to two
livings, tlie one worth 50(1/., the other worth 300/. a-ycar. And
here he might take occa^ion to observe, that there was no com-
plaint in the report of the charity commissioners, than which there
was no more valuable document. Their report was one made by
learned and honourable men, not by the mere tools of a party : it
■was made too, not as a mere party job, but in the discharge of
their legal and moral duty. In that, then, there was no complaint
of malversation against the corporations in the managciient of
their charities. But to accompany the flying comaiissioners of
municipal reform, their lordships would have to travel across the
country to Norwich —and in justice he must rem^^rk incidentally,
that no rider for a London shop, sent out to ascertain the price of
cotton in various places, could have been so pricked on to expeili-
tion as were these riding commissioners. They had hardly time to
lunch themselves, and not an hour to cure the broken knees of
their hacks. There was not time granted them for leisure or lucu-
bration, but they were to send up to the Government the wet sheets
of their report, that they might forthwith be put into the twopenny
post for the printer, so that they should with all imaginable s|»eed
be able to produce the draught of a bill. Their lordships should
remark too, that these municipal corporations wished not to have
anything to do with the Church, or to deal with its ijatronage:
they were for voluntary religion, annual parliaments, and universal
SuflFrage. Yet at Norwicli they had reaped a large clerical crop —
namely, twelve advowsons ; and, by-the-bye, one of the complaints
against this same corporation of Norv.ich, that was to be extruded
from its rights, was, that it was too popular. The ecclesiastical
patronage thus to be ti-ansferred amounted to 2150/. a-year.
There was likewise a valuable school, called Edward the Sixth's
school. And if it had not happened that the great seal was not in
the hands of the Lord Chancellor, whose place was vacant, as this
school was a royal foundation, some question might be raised as to
■whether the visitors could be thus unceremoniously changed under
the bill. But in addition to the benefices and the school, there
■were five scholarships at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge,
founded by Archbishot) Parker, who certainly never looked for-
■ward to their being disposed of according to the goodwill and plea-
sure of a body of annual parliament and universal-suffrage men.

Next he came to Coventry, and there he found that there was
a rectory and another preferment which it was proposed to trans-
fer to the tender care of the new bodj'. The corj)oration of Coven-
try too had two fellowships at St. John's College, and a fellowship
at Catherine-hall, Cambridge, and four exhibitions of 40/. each.
At Boston there were two livings in the gift of the corporation, one
of 400/., another of 100/. a year. In Doncaster there was a rectory
and a grammar-school. In Bath a living of 800/. a year, and a rec-
tory; he merely stated the cases of these cities as examples. He
■would not run through the cases of the other cities and boroughs,
indeed be ■was not in a condition to do so, but he was convinced

23

that if a tabular view of the ecclesiastical preferments now admi-
nisteied by existing corporations were taken, the amount would
prove to be more consi ierable than anybody perhaps imagined.
After stating the nature of these facts, he would call their lordships'
attentifjn to legal matters, which arose out of them. He could
assure their lordships that tliere were many points which would
arise on which he doubted not they would see fit to take the opi-
nion of the judges. Many nice questions would arise with respect
to foundership, visitorsbip, and trusteeship. It should be recol-
lected, that if the founder appointed no trustee, then his heir be-
came the trustee. This was where the foundation was in land.
Now, the trusteeship v-as a freeliold rigbt, whether merely as a
matter of duty or a usufruct. It was as inuch a freehold as their
lordships' patents, by which they had a righi to sit and vote in that
house. What they held under their patents was title, dignity, sta-
tion, trust. It was unconnected with property : it was conferred for
the public benefit ; and such precisely was foundership, visitorship,
and trusteeship. And there was no corpoi'ation, he believed, that
had not some public trust. Most of them had power over public
schools, some over colleges at our universities ; and now the mode
in which the iramers of the bill proposed to deal with those rights
was to turn out those who were seised and possessed of them, and
take not only the property, but also all the powers and privileges
and control emplojed by them, and transfer them to others, on
whom they proposed to confer the powers and duties of visitors
and trustees.

He regretted very much, he regretted deeply and sincerely, that
there was not a lord chancellor present at the discussions of that
portion of the Privy Council called the Cabinet. If any lawyer
were in that situation, he would have been bound to inform his
colleagues that the measure proposed in another place was one to
which he could not, in tlie form in which it was proposed, give his
assent. He would have been bound to tell them that the charge
against the corporations being abuse and neglect, that a case had
not been n:adeout against them ; that if he had been sitting in his
court he could not upon the evidence preferred have entertained
the case, or that if he did he would have incurred universal odium
and contempt — he would have been made an outcast, despised, and
at the same time hated, like Lord Jeft'eries, by a tyrannized-over
and insulted people. Where proceedings of a penal nature were
taken in Parliament, the Parliament proceeded after the same
manner as the courts of law. Confiscation was never proceeded
to unless a legal case for confiscation had been made out. But this
was from beginiiingto end a bid of confiscation, and therefore their
lordships should be l)ound to see that there were some judicial
grounds, such as would be recognised in a court of law, whereoa
they might proceed to put out the peccant and ill-conditioned cha-
racters of the corporations. He repeated, thfn, that he felt sin-
cere and deep regret, knowing what a lord chancellor could do
and what he could not do in his court, that there was not in this
empire such an officer at that tune to raise his voice against a bill
which was founded on princii)le3 that must be spurned with ridi-
cule from any legal tribunal before which they might hapi)en to be

24

hrought. If there had heen a lawyer to declare this to the Cabi-
net, a measure of such injustice and tyranny never would have
passed through the several stages which had brought it before
their lordships' liouse. He would next remark that there were
many charities of which grave questions might arise. There was
Sir Thomas Whyte's charity, which was to be administered by
aldermen. What was to become of it when there were not longer
aldermen in existence, unless they resorted to some measure of
violence .' He asserted that as to land, and no lawyer would con-
tradict him, if it were given to peojde who could not enjoy it, then
it went back to the donor. He contended that in many cases it
would be found that the charters had fallen to the ground.

Having called their lordships' attention to the princijjle of the
change, and sketched out a portion of the property which would
be affected by it, he would now proceed to a more general view of
the measure, and to direct their minds to other considerations. He
knew not if it would be of any use for him to say more about the
report of the commissioners or the two protests. He wished, how-
ever, to make one remark upon the mode in which these gentlemen
had availed themselves of every opportunity of saying everything,
of recording every scrap of idle tittle-tattle against the corporate
bodies. In Coventry it appeared there was a school and a library.
The commissioners, who had visited the city as lovers of literature
and great march-of-intellect men, were grieved and annoyed at
the library's being neglected by the corporation. They stated —
" From the evidence of a person who had been a pupil of the
under-master, the books appear, at the time he was at the school,
to have been used to light tlie fires. An inspection and catalogue
were taken by a committee of the corporation in January 1831,
when it was evident that not the slightest pains had been taken
for their preservation." Now, it was known that boys at schools
did not always use their books most reverently ; but surely there
ought to have been some better authority than this ex-pupil of the
under-master to justify grave commissioners in putting forward
this gossiping tale. But the history of the matter was this — that
when the commissioners came round there under my Lord
Brougham's bill, the schoolmaster, who was always a very abso-
lute character, and who, within the purlieus of the ferula, which
was his sceptre, a very autocrat, was then at feud in some sort
with the corporation, the visitors being annoyed at the little care
he took of the books, and of which they complained to the com-
missioners.

A gentleman with whom he had communicated had spoken of
books being burnt, and had some two or three years before made a
complaint to prevent this arson of the hooks. This formed the
foundation of the story which had been thrust into the report. The
gentlemen might have seen that the charge was not a very sound
one, when they knew, or might have known, that the visitors gave
20/. a year to the library. It was not very probable that hoys or
servant maids would be permitted habitually to light fires with the
books. If, indeed, a Parliamentary report like unto one which he
had in his eye were to be used to light a fire, or for waste paper in
any other respect, there could be no great complaint of the con-

25

sumption of intellectual power, or rather of its embod3'ment and
the loss of useful knowledge — if, indeed, this paper, marked with
such characters of peculiar power as it was, could have furnished
forth a blaze. It would be another thing, indeed, if bo\'s had flung
their Homer, or the ardentia verba of Lucan, on the fire. Then la
in truth there would have been some good reason for the com-
plaint. He would not weary their lordships by dwelling on such
matters — there was a perfect florilegium of them in Sir F. Pal-
grave's protest. He would merely advert to one or two prominent
cases which he should not be quite justified in passing over. First,
there was Banbury — that was a good case. The commissioners
said — " The high estimation in which the present dejjuty recorder
is held, and his disconnexion from local party, exclude all sus-
picion of judicial injustice in trials at the sessions; but there is a
constant apprehension of unlairness in the ])rcv!Ous machinery of
the courts, and in the exercise of the summary jurisdiction of the
magistrates. One instance of this we have already mentioned in
the case of the supposed alteration of the jury panels ; others of a
similar kind were related to us ; and though we were satisfied that
the charges were without fouiulation in the particular instances,
we consider them as so many i)roofs of the existence of an invete-
rate sus|)icion and distrust on the part of the inhabitants towards
the local magistracy, which leads even intelligent and well-in-
structed persons to believe improbable suggestions and accusations
upon little or no evidence." So the silly credulity of these intelli-
gent and well-educated ])ei-sons was to be an argument for over-
turning our ancient institutions.

But after all, Banbury was a close body ; let us see Plymouth : —
"The constitution and character of the corporation of Plymouth
are very superior to those of the other municipal bodies in the
west of England. It affords the only instance that occurred to us,
in the course of our inquiries, of a corporation framed and acting
upon popular principles- Not only are the mayor and aldermen
elected by the commonalty, but the management of all the corpo-
rate affairs has, in fact, since the year 1803, been in the hands of
the freemen at large. This power has been exercised by thera
with much prudence and discretion, by the appointment of a com-
mittee of twenty-one of their number, by whom all the business of
the corporation is conducted. This bod)', dividing itself into sub-
committees, appears to form an excellent board of management,
and to conduct the affairs of the corporation witli diligence, zeal,
and integrity. The popular election of its members not merely
prevents the admission of persons adverse to the public interests,
but inspires a feeling of good-will towards the municipal authori-
ties on the part of the inhabitants at large, seldom found to exist
in corporations where the government is vested in a select body.
The important question of the right to the public conduits has
indeed, in some degree, disturbed the harmony which subsisted
between the corporation and the inhabitants of Plymouth."

How grand! How Ciceronian! But then they go on to an ex-
cellent conclusion, — "The committee of 21 have not, in the ma-
nagement of the financial affairs of the corporation, acted with
that cautioa and discretion which might have beea expected from

26

them. The improvident speculations entered into by them in the
erection of the Royal Hotel, and the therxue adjoining, the expense
of which far exceeded the sum originally proposed to be laid out,
brought the corj)oration into considerable difficulties, from which
they are not yet extricated, and from which it must be long before
they can be free. It is true, that the town has benefited greatly
by those improvements, but the corporation have disabled them-
selves from executing other works of far more importance. On
account of the want of funds, it is found impossible to erect a new
jail, which has been long required, and which certainly ought to
have been constructed before the funds of the corporation were
devoted to what may be considered as a mere mercantile specula-
tion. One consequence of the difficulties into which this unfortu-
nate expenditure of their revenue plunged the corporation was,
that it compelled them to make sale of the next presentation to
the churches of St. Andrew and Charles, and to apply the proceeds
towards the reduction of the debt which they had incurred. No
part of this money was expended upon the churches themselves,
which required repairs, and it consequently became necessary to
impose a church-rate, a measure of course very unpopular amongst
the inhabitants.

It seems also to have been the opinion of many persons, that the
sale of the next presentation was in itself, and without reference to
the application of the moneys arising from it, an improper act on
the part of the corporation ; that they stood in the situation of
trustees for the public, charged with the duty of providing the
churches with proper ministers; and that it was a breach of that
duty in them to transfer the right to others. The connexion of
the corporation with the m.anagement of the poor appears, under
the present system, to be undesirable. Although we could not trace
the existence of any improper conduct on the part of those mem-
bers of the corporate body who are ex officio guardians of the poor,
yet a strong feeling seemed to prevail, on the jjart of the inhabit-
ants, with regard to the impropriety of their acting in that charac-
ter." It was signed Henry Roscoe and Edward Rushton, and he
should be ready to bear testimony to the honest termination to
■which they had brought their magruloquent report.

The report to which he had just been calling their lordships'
attention bore the signatures of Messrs. Roscoe and Rushton, and
however incon-ect that report might in some respects be, those
gentlemen redeemed all their errors by means of the extraordinary
force and power with which they pointed out the glaring and scan-
dalous breaches of trust committed by those popularly chosen cor-
porations. Thus there was presented to the House an example,
not alone of what was probable, but that which would certainly
take place in any bodies similarly constituted. They had, in the
case to which he was adverting, a popularly constituted body sell-
ing the next presentation to a living, for the purpose of erecting a
hotel and a theatre, at the latter of which no doubt the best edu-
cated and most moral of femaJes would be the most constant at-
tendants. Here was a mercantile speculation of which the history
of no corporation extant could furnish an example.
The learned gentleman next adverted to the history of the in-

27

qui'ies instituted by the commissioners into the case of some of the
Welsh corporations, in which tliej founil tlie ma>^istrMtes unable to
Sj.eak Eciglish ; butin liis opinion the just ground of complaint was,
not tliiit the natives of VVnles were unacquiiinlfd with that which,
niii^t h.ve been to them a for-iiin lang-mige, but that commissioners
sho*iM have been sent down there who knew nothing of the language
of those with whom they 'K't:-Te to comniunicate. He shnuld now
come to that re.ort if Air. Hogg wtiich had occasioned such a
sensation, which was for its stutemm s and its reasonings so va-
luable.

Th- 1 report, as their lordshi us knew, had long been d-luyed, but at
length tliey were in possesion ot ii ; to obtdin it was as difficult as
10 get up a fresli manuscript from Herculaneiim or Pompeii ; whea
finally it was ui^r.dled, it contained full lepaymeni for the trouble
winch iicqu ri ig it occasioned. iMr. Hogs:, in making up his report,
comidiiined that he had not been consulted on the general report ; ho
certainly bad a ri^ht to be consulted. However, his brother com-
mibsioners thouglit otherwise, and he expressed his "cordial dis*
agreement " from them.
O.i this subject the learned gentleman restated, and dwelt upon those
in ret'eience to the preamble, w .ich on the preceding evening he had
pressed upon the afention of their lordships, and recapitulated maay
of the leading points in his former and present address, afierwards
proceeding to contend that the officers of corporations had neither
been convicted of mis.onduct, nor the trustees of breaches of trust.
It had heen stated, over and over again, ttiat those corporations must
be whoUv remodelled; forsooth they admitted of no cure or correc-
tion- there was no physic to be amninistered to the suflFerer — the
niaiadv was lo be put an end to, not by the operation ot medicine,
but by the more summary process of killii g the patient. If the pa-
tient were cold, there was to be no attempt to warm him ; if para-
lytic, no effort to infuse vigour into the system ; but ihe short mode
of overcoming every ciiffiiulty was to kill him outiight. As the wise
an 1 humane physician did not desire to destroji the physical man, se
the sound and benevolent legislator would not dt-sire to destroy the
metaphysifal existence called a Municipal Corporation.

Without requesting much of their lordships' attention to the rules
which g verned ' hilosophical and liberal reformers; without dwell-
ii g on th se changes of circumstances upon which so much stress
had been laid, he sbjuld just direct the attention of their lordships
to some ot the rules which governed the proceedings of that liouse.
It was perfectly true that a corporation might forfeit its right, but
nothing of the sort was for a moment pretended with respect to any
of the corjiorations which had tormed the subject of the repon of the
commissioners. The question, therf fore, which their lordships bad
to consiiler was, in some deg ee, analogous to a proceeding in the
Court of King's Bench, by a writ of quo warranto, or a proct-eding
on equ table grounds, before tiie Lord Chancellor, in the Court of
Ciiaiicery. Aow that which the Court of King's Bench or the Court
of Chancery would hold to be law in their judicial capacity, the
) lous of Lords would also ho^d to be law. I'hat h')use had not only
a leiislaiive, but aju^iicial character; that which thev would not do
in t e latter capacity, they surely «ught not to do ia the former. la

28

botli thej would be govprn d by piiiicip'es consonant wilh justice
and witli ibe generalchiiiacler of our jurisprudence. Were they to pro-
ceed otherwise, it v ouUI not be just.ce, but tyr.iiiny. It was because
tlie Atiorney-Geuerul could not and d.ired not sign the name of John
Campbell to iiny leyal inroriniuioa, in any of his Maesty's courts, in
the -hiipe of a quo warranto, to st'ip those corporations ot their
right' ut functions; because lie would not, and could not, degrade
himself by atlixing- his signature to such instruments, to be juiioed
deliberated, and decided upon accoidins; to the rules of law and evi-
dence, the House of Lords was to be called upon, i:i iis leo'islative
capacity, to involve in oie ge;ieial sweeping c nfiscaiion and for-
feiture, puniihing in the luinj) the sujjp.sei guilLV and admutedly
innocent, when, even in case of the supposed guilt\ , the Attorney-
General could not advaice a single ste.i in procuring bv law aud
evidence the judj;nient of proved delinquency. He called u(>on
tbeir 1 rdships to recollect that while they s-it in their legislative
cbariicter they could not disposs-ss tiiemselves of their judicial
functions; aud vvl.en this bill sou^^ht to annlulate those corporations
in toto, they were bound to inquire wliether such abuse and neglect
had been proved as would, on ihe ordinary princii)les of British law,
authorize a verdict of forfeiture and confiscation. If abuse and
neglect, if a case of forfeiture or confiscation, were proved, cadet
questio, the coiulusioa was admitied. Hut No, s lid the political
Speculatists, No said the philanthroj^ist, No said the changers of the
Cousti ulion of the rirahn, tlie men w!io marched with the ch.mo-e of
circumstances — Ni', tliey could n .t th nk of putting an entl to tliostj
corporations in the ordinary course of the law on the head of delin-
quency, they must of course deal with the rase as an ordinary legis-
lative measure, an I call on that house to pass this bill without esta-
blishing by evidence any one of the ordinary grounds on which a
confiscation or forfeitiire could be operated according to the inva-
riable principles of the laws. He was sure they would not thus
vilify and abuse their supreme powers as legislators. They would
not thus allow themselves to be made tools of by consenting to do
that in their legislative capacity, which, as judges, they would be
ashamed to carry into eflect.

Such was the fallacy — he was going to say the political contrivance
— of those who thought it expedient to put an end to all those com-
munities; by this trickery, by this unwholesome, unconstitutional
process, the case was converted from being a matter of right or
wrong, and to be treated accoi liing to the ordinary principles of law
into the shape of a mere political question, to answer ihe purposes
of a political party, and on which their lordships were ca led to
pronounce in the arbitrary exercise of their powers as legislators,
that which in the subordinate but sacred cl.aracter as judges vras
incon^islet.t wilh right and law, and infinitely beneath iheir honour-
able consideration. This was a bill of pains and penalties — a pro-
ceeding certainly known to the law, of which there were several in-
stances on their lordships' journals, and which was usually adopted
where delinquency existed of that description which it was either
impossible or very difficult to deal with according to the ordinary-
principles of the law. But he was not aware that any such diflBcultj
existed in the present instance. He maintained, that in the case of

29

a delinquent corporation it was not necessary to resort to the extra-
ordinary measure of pains and penalties. Where even tLere was a
cleir case of abuse or neglect connected either with charitable trusts,
or the general powers of the corporation, lesal proceedings mio^ht
have been taken to accoinplisli the ends in view. 'I'here were some
authorities on this part of the subject to which he considered it
material shortly to call their lordships' attention. There was only
one case on the journals of that house which, after considerable re-
search, he had b en able to tind, where tuere was a sentence of con-
fiscation of charter I'ronounced by Parlidinent. That case was ret'er-
red to in Lord Coke's Fourth Institute, p. 228, and also in the cele-
brated quo warranto case in the reign of Charles II. Sir Robert
Sawyer, then attorney-general, was emjiloyed to procure a forfeiture
of the city of London charter ; and it was verv ne .essary for certain
persons to be apprised ol the fact that that same Sir Robert Sawyer
was afterwards expelled from the House of Commons by the Sergeant-
at- Arms (the Sir W illiam Gossett of the day), for various handicraft
achievements in dealing with charters. Beiore the Revolution a
judgment was obtained forfeiting the charter; a perfectly clear case
of forfeiture had not occurred; but it was forfeitable— that he was
ready to admit. If, however, a case did exist, whv had not the At-
torney-General proceeded ? No doubt it was said that Parliament
acting legislatively might do so. He found no case, however, on the
journals in whicli that house had acted, except in the time of Richard
II., the case ol the corporation of Cambridge, where the mayor, bai-
liffs, and commonalty, made a violent assault on the chancellor and
scholars of the university, compelled them to give a bond for 3000/.,
and, in fact, for the time being suppressed the university.

The matter was brought be.fore Parliament by way of attainder.
The corporation asked three things — a copy of the bill, counsel, and
time to plead; which settled the question as to counsel being heard
in the present instance. They had what thej' requested, and after
various subterfuges had been resorted to, as stated in the report, the
House pronounced a sentence similar to ihat which in the Court of
King's Bench would have been a forfeiture by quo warranto. The
charter, however, was afterwards restored, and peace and harmony
had since prevailed among all the parties during the long interval
between that time and the celebrated case of quo warranto.

With respect to the charier of the City of London, and from that
up to the present moment, there had not been a single instance of
Parliamentary attainder or impeachment, or proceeding by bills of
pains and penalties, towards the corporations of the country. But
there were some other facts to which he wished to call their lordships'
attention. There was a persoi^al remedy, by indictment or informa-
tion, toties quoties, against a mayor or any other officer who miscon-
ducted liimself in any particular instance, but that was not to fasten
aggregate delinquency on the whole body. He would now call their
attention to a few facts illustrative of his proposition. It occurred
that in 1803 there were riots in Notiingham which interfered essen-
tially with the freedom of election. A petition was presented to the
House of Commons, on which a special report, taken on oath, was
made, stating that the magistrates, who were specifically named, had
counived at those disturbances. The writ was suspended, and a bill

30

was brought in for the purpose of amending that defect in the maois*
tracv of the corporation of Notlingham, its efl'ect being not to forfeit
the cliaiter — not even to take away from the corpoiuiion the magis-
terial functions — not even to declare that those who had so miscon-
ducied tiiemselves should no longer act as magistrates, but merely to
give the count> magistrates a concurrent jurisdiction in the town.
On that occasion Rlr. Fox, the ablest constitutional lawver of the
times in which he lived, maintained that tlie corporation should not
in perpetuumheuT the dis'^race of an intrusion of county magistrates
within the corporate jurisdiction, and tljat the reii.edy -hould be
strictly proportioned to the individual delinquency which h d been
proved He cliallenged the Aito nty-Gen>^ral, the quasi Sir Robert
Sawyer — vacant e sede of the Chancellor, to come Ibrwiird with the
proof of aggregate delinquency which this report charged on the
existing corpo ations, and he pledged himself not to leave that bar as
long as the moliter manus of their lordsl i[is' officer would permit hiiu
to remain, in order to prove how utterly false, malignant, and con-
temptible they were. He would venture to state, that in the whole
tract of time since this Houseexisted, ihe instances which he adduced
were the only ones bearing at •all on ihe question. He would not
undertake to say whether in early times there might not have been
ca>es like that of Nottingham ; but he would say that the present bill
was a bill of pains and penalties, lie had therefore stated his doubts
as to the course which he should feel bound to pursue. If their
lordships would have the kindness to lool; into their own journals as
to the course of procedure which w;.s to be attempted, i.nd with
reference to w^hich he had called this bill a bill of pains and penalties,
they would see that the course he advocated was the oniy one justified
by reason and precedent. He wi uhi reier their lords-hips in par-
ticular to the case of Bishop Aitt-rburj', which took |>lace in i7'-z3.
That House had never proceeded in a case of pains and penalties Out
indue course of law, and they would find that in Bishop Atterbury'a
case evidence was heard by their lordships, not from his seat on the
prelates' bench, but at the bar of ti.e House, These instances would
be fund in iMr. Hatfield's volume. His pro| osition was, that the
prc-moters of this bill liad thought fit to pronounce a sentt-nce of
deprivation on these corporations, on the ground ol misconduct. Very
well ; but in Atterbury's case the iatts were pr- ved as well as in any
other case. '1 hese were the tacts on which he relied. There was
also the case of Mr. Wilson, who was disahhd from bidding any office
in the magistracy of Ediuburgh at ti e time of the death of Captain
Porteous. 'Ihe facts of this delinquency were tried there as in ihe
case of any ordinary issue, but ii was then ordered that counsel
should be heard and witnesses examined on either side. 'J he question
which w^as tried in ihe instance of i\lr. Alexander Wilson involved
the depnvati n of office, and incapacity to hold it for the future ; but
the question was tried at the bar ol the House, and the same issue
was brought to adjudication as would have been iried at any bar Jif the
King's courts, i hey would not therefore say, " W e will, without
examination, judge of the facts upon which we are called, judicially
and legislative y, to pronounce our decision," In the case of
Nottingham there was a debate in the Coinmoi s' House of Parliament,
»>atained in the Stiib volume of Hansard't Parliamentary Dedatetf

31

on which occasion Mr. Bennett made a very strong speech. There
•was a division on the subject, 164 being ag.iiust tlie bill, and Mr. Grey
and Lord Ciivendish being included in a minority of ^9. The amend-
ment was supported bv that eminent constitutional lawyer Mr. Fox.
The consequence of that discussion was, that the county magistracy
vras added to aid the defects which existed in the corporation of Not-
tingham. He wished to ask who was the protector of this bill. He
did not know who he was — he did not care : he should look to meet
the Attorney-General there, though he did not know who the author
of this bill was.

He thought it was a spurious bill, and lie did not think that any one
would be particularly fond of having it affiliated upon him. No lord
chancellor now sat on the woolsack ; there was no one to give sanc-
tion to a bill in which the King was not a sovereign, in which he
played but a vice-regal part, and must continue to do so unless he
submitted to the dirtv degradation of trafficking for the magisterial
power with the democratical commune established by the bill. He
was exceeding sorry to see the chancellor, the keejier of the seals,
was not in existence to tell the King how manv offices were taken
away by this bill. He did not know that these charters granted by
princes weie all intended to be taken away, and these places were to
be tilled through other modes and channels of appointment than those
which tht- present corporate conditions required. These rights were
to be taken away from the King's donees. He was the donor, the
giver of every thing that was given bi-fore this bill was thought of.
He was exceedingly pained that there was not a minister of the
Crown to give his Majesty this information. In these changes of
time and circumstances, as the preamble of the bill stated, he did
not know what was going on. But if such a respoisible minister of
the Crown had been in existence, five minutes would not have elapsed
before he would have been a^kcd what steps he had taken on this
subject. Parliament was under this bill to take away those rights
which existed only by Royal grant. It was under these circum-
stances that if he should be asked what course he meant to take with
regard to every one of these corporations, he should demand that
every one of them should be served with a copy of the bill, he should
claim that everv one of these corporations should be tried at the bar
of the house, in the same manner as if every alleged delinquency on
their part ou^ht to be proved, and that they should have an opportu-
nity of disproving the charges which liad been brought against them.
From these claims he should not recede. He claimed to tender wit-
nesses at the bar, to refute the falselioods and malignant preamble of
this bill. As for the phrase " change of circumstance-"," he con-
fessed he was unable to meet it in any tangible point of view. He
might guess what it meant, but his conjectures were nobbing. Alder-
man Parsons, and Sir Joseph Locke, and the 4000 kicked-out cor-
porators of Oxford, might not, perhaps, be more fortunate. He should
not be at all surprised if the unknown defenders of the bill should
say to the Attorney-General, " Mr. Attorney, we do not know any-
thing about thia, you must come and get us out of 'his scrape."
But what he (Sir C. Wetherell) now announced to their lordships,
and through their lordships to the public, was this — that till it was
conceded to him that all the privileges which he had claimed were

32

to be allowed to his clients, be would not retire from their lordships'
bar till he had confuted the scandalous falsehoods chat had been pro-
pagated. If their lordships cho!=e to s ly, that looking at this cr,iim
merely as a matter of privilege thry could not .dlow it, lookinif at it as a
matter of riglit they could not concede it, he should then decide what
course lie should take; but in this tlie High Court of Parliament as
Lord Coke called it, tlie ordinary rules of evidence as mucli applied
as in t!ie ordinary practice in the King's Couris. 'J he only question,
in fi)ct, with which the House had to denl was the truth or fdsehood
of the imputations, on which, if '-stablished, ]iuai-;hmeht was to fol-
low. It was under thf se circumstances that he hud to comp\.iii) of the
state of things intended to be brou;:ht about by this bill, of thia new
kingdom of which liis Majesty is not to be king, of tliis new svstem
of republican organization which was not to invest his Majesty with
the powers of a sovereign, but to make him play a vice-regal part. In
these boroughs, these new y crented municipalities, it would not be
the King's peace wtiich would be broken, but what they might iliink
fit to call their peace. Thi** body of nearly 3,000,000 of tlie King's
subjects were to be excm])ted from ihe King's peace, and would very
probably think thev did his Majesty im hi-nour in submitting the
magistrates they had chosen for his iSInjestv's approbation.

J f these privilegi-s h;id been taken away bv his Majesty, he would
surrender them, but he would not tamelv surrender them to a demo-
rratical body, such as was likeiy to monopolize the whole power of
the borough under this hill. When there was no responsible adviser
of the Crown in the cabinet, to bo, as was the duty of him who had
the charge of the great seal, the conseryator of his Majesty's prero-
gatives, It was quite impossible lo say wlieiher his Majesty in his
personal ;ind individual char.icter thought fit to give his assent to this
bill. It was reallv deplorable that any man should oe so ill informed
of a measure so much aft'ecting his own prerogative, while these
enormous changes were going on, and that no man would be found to
teli him how those prerogatives were likely to be affected by the pro-
ceedinss of the Houses of Parliament. He would now wish to advert
to the privileges of that House, and he would remind their lordships
that they held their hereditary rank and dignity by a title analogous
to that which it was now proposed to sweep away. Their lordships'
titles rested on the same snecies of grant; and if on this ground
inutility was predicated of the corporations, it might be also predi-
cated of the House of Lords. If that fixed and immoveable cliaracter
was now removed from these corporations, the experiment might as
easily be made with the House of Lords. As to the phrase of
" change of circumsta-ices," he had always been unable to grapide
with that philosophy ; but their lordshi-.is would recollect that the
privileges of that house were materially affected by this bill. If the
principle of an elective council, of universal suftVajje and anaual
parliaments, was to be embodied, good fortune must surely attend
their lordships, and he hoped it would, if in the wreck and revolution
of this measure they were the only persons who escaped being over-
whelmed and submerged by the waves which threatened to swallow
up every existing landmark.

Prilled by C. F. Cock, 41 , Fleet-street.
Price id, each, 1*. 6d. per dozen, 10«. ptr hvndred, and 4'. j «• Ihoutand.

K^

JS
3068

1835

Wetherell, (Sir) Charles

Speech at the bar of the
House of Lords against the
iniquitous Corporation bill
on Thursday, 30th, and Frida
31st July, 1835 2d ed.

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